Morals, not politics, to be focus of border ethics discussion

People hang out in the beach next to the border fence separating Mexico from the U.S. as the day comes to an end in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

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Border Ethics Panel

What: Joseph Carens, a leading expert on border and immigration ethics at the University of Toronto, will lead a panel discussion on border ethics. The talk will look at the moral obligations of immigration rather than political and legal ones.

“We really want our focus to be not on political issues but ethical issues, and those things are different,” says Welchman, one of the panel organizers and an assistant professor of philosophy at UTSA. “The fact that you have no legal obligation to someone doesn't mean you don't have a moral obligation.”

That means asking questions that aren't typically part of the political debate, such as “does the border make us who we are?” and, “how far should we go to stop people from crossing it?” according to the Institute of Texan Cultures.

“It's quite an amazing array of folks,” says Santos, a proponent of a more open border with Mexico — a view that will be countered by other members of the panel. Santos' family has lived in the area for generations, long before there was an enforced border separating Texas and Mexico.

“The nation is being imprinted with a new type of heritage and history,” he says, based on our relationship with the countries south of the United States border.